You don't really own your property in St. John's

Heritage structures are a big deal in St. John’s. Most of the time when I hear about city council they are discussing whether or not some building or house or random structure is “protected” as a heritage building. It’s almost as though they’ve discovered a loop-hole in property ownership and are all too eager to exercise it. They love to get their meat-hooks into the private affairs of individuals and this is one area where they feel particularly powerful. One such case emerged recently where there is an old house on 25 Winter Ave. which was purchased. Remember, this house was sold from one private owner to another. Yet, somehow a bunch of bureaucrats feel they have some kind of say as to what happens with the property. The even weirder thing is that many councillors not only feel they have some kind of say into what happens to the house, but they have some form of ownership as well. This comes out in the reactions of some city councillors to the destruction of the property.

 

Shannie Duff, a former councillor, released a statement saying she “felt sick” about the destruction of the property. Dave Lane said “It hurts my heart to think of it.” These are the reactions of owners, and I’m sure these people have convinced themselves they in fact do own these properties and their subjects have been allowed to temporarily reside in them at their will.

 

One of the things that separates Canada from uncivilized countries is property ownership. In communist countries, things are all held in common. You don’t really own anything. But the result of not owning anything is people don’t care of it much. If a property cannot be changed or bulldozed, its value decreases. A rotting “heritage” house on prime real estate will have little value to someone who wants to live in a modern home. But it’s more than a practical matter, it’s a philosophical matter. To believe that the state owns everything and can, at whim, decide what its subjects can do with it, subjugates one group of people to another. And in this case, it subjects them to their inferiors. Politicians just have to have a nice smile and say things people like to hear to have massive power in our democratic system, while on the other hand for someone to legitimately purchase a large property, they have to have provided enormous value to society through their goods or services. The latter group should have almost full autonomy over what they do with their own property which they’ve purchased.

 

The whole “heritage” ploy in St. John’s is nothing but a charade designed to give functionaries who can’t make it in the real world enormous power over the lives of people. They have tried to make 20 year old buildings “heritage” buildings, they’ve demanded brand new buildings conform to standards of “heritage”. It’s just keeping everyone back in the past, in a super artificial way. It’s classic power-grabbing. Trust me, no one moves to St. John’s because on some obscure road, someone was prevented from modernizing a house.

 

Good:

 

(picture from CBC)